Sunday, July 06, 2008
Vinton, keep the park open
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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For pete's sakes, let the kids skateboard!
In typical fashion, the adults on the Vinton Town Council overreacted because a few bad apples have defaced a Gearhart Park skating area that, shamefully, town officials weren't taking care of anyway.
So what did the town leaders do? Voted to close the skate park by the end of this month.
There, that'll show those troublemaking kids.
Problem is, the council's shortsighted decision hurts the good kids, too.
What were council members thinking when they voted two weeks ago to close a park that young people, to their credit, raised half the money to build? Where did they suppose the 'boarders and BMX bikers could pop their wheelies and practice other X Game stunts?
The business folks don't want them riding through town and in the Vinton Farmers Market. So where would they go? What would they do?
Taking a page from civics class, a group of teens who use the park showed up at a meeting last week to politely ask the council to keep the park open. Council members showed some heart by scheduling a public hearing next week.
The right gesture would be to reverse this boneheaded decision.
The park was built in 2002 after authorities shooed the kids from the business area in town and made it clear they weren't welcome there.
So the youngsters decided to raise $10,000 to get a park built. Score one for kid initiative, because they did raise the money. Their effort yielded a $10,000 matching grant from Roanoke County Parks, for a total of $20,000.
In recent months, however, vandals have spray-painted graffiti, trashed water fountains and stolen trash cans or set them on fire. Not to mention the bright red sofa somebody dumped there.
If the park has operated all these years but the vandalism became a problem only recently, that suggests the skaters probably aren't the ones destroying their own playground.
According to interim Town Manager Consuella Caudill, the town wants to find another, more visible location for the park. If town officials want to do that, fine.
But leave the current park open while searching for another site. Young people complain they have nothing to do, and these kids are no exception.
"If you close the skate park, there's going to be nowhere else for us to go," said skater Kyler Millman.
Don't take away what they have. The alternative is bored kids, and as my mom used to say, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
Clean the park, install cameras -- and let these kids skate.
Shanna Flowers' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
